Travel, teaching, and time: Back to the Beginning

(NOTE: This post has been waiting, unpublished, while I tried to figure out how to add pictures. Some things, like technology, are just not quite the same as it was in the states. Some things test one's patience!)

Good-Byes and Hellos:

A week before departure, a sweet couple with 18 month old triplets wanted to see our house. Four days before departure, they made us an offer and we accepted! With a signed purchase agreement in hand, we made our way to the Title Company to start the process and signed over power of attorney.

The last few days were spent with friends and family. Cassandra came home from college to see us off. We moved to my parent's house, but still had some packing to do. Pack, weigh the bags, purge, weigh again, purge again - weigh again, move things from one suitcase to another. At last we had it. The last day we went to dinner with both sets of parents and then Gary still had to take the raft out of the lake (around midnight) and winterize the boat! That's okay, we really weren't going to sleep anyways!

My whole family came to see us off. Sister Linda and hubby Dana flew in from Alaska, sister Jody and hubby Doug came in from Texas via a lot of other places, and the kids came home from Lansing. Mom and Dad surprised us all with matching t-shirts that say "Laura and Gary's Egyptian adventure"

Cassandra's BBF since kindergarten with her mom (also my Girl Scout co-leader, and these two were the last to stay in GS!)

Gary's parents, my parents, and Cassandra the night before departure

Gary tried to give Scott a refresher course so he would want to come see us and dive the Red Sea.

We took lots of boat rides on Lake Michigan before departure. This is Cassandra and me.

Wonderful neighbors, friends, Bunco buddies, and cool kids. We went to Fayette SP by boat, then to The Docks restaurant on Garden Peninsula.

We were so lucky to get to see Kris, my MSU college roommate and good friend from high school who now lives in Oklahoma

Judy set Gary and me up on a blind date once upon a time. So fun to get to spend time with her and her lovely hubby, Paul.

We were glad to be able to spend time with this busy lady and her hubby before we left!

Sharon's hubby, Jim and Gary pose in front of the CG ship that happened to stop by Esky before we departed.

Dinner at The Stonehouse before departure. Thank-you to the UU's who provided us with a nice gift card for this delicious restaurant!

August 4, my parents and Cassandra took us to the Sawyer International Airport in Marquette, MI for departure. We flew American Airlines to Chicago.

This is the whole airport - yep, one terminal!

From Chicago, we flew Etihad Airlines. Never heard of it? That's okay - neither had we! I had heard stories about Middle Eastern airlines being very different than US airlines, but that was not our experience. From the gate in Chicago, to the gate in Abu Dhabi, 14 hours later, everything was very organized and familiar. Like most US planes, I sat squished in a seat that would not recline, while the seat in front of me reclined back so far, the person was nearly in my lap and my knees were pressed into the back of the seat. Etihad really does feed you well, however. I guess they want to fatten everyone up so they are forced to buy first class tickets next time they fly since the seats in first class fit fatter butts. That's good business! Capitalism at its finest!

Settling in for our 14 hour flight!

In Abu Dhabi, we were surprised by how many people were speaking English. In addition, it really made me happy that I was born in an English speaking country since anywhere you go in the world, airport signs are written in English in addition to the local language. Our phone said the temperature in Abu Dhabi was 111 degrees while we were there. In the air conditioned airport, it was hard to tell - but on the way to get on the plane, part of the jetway was having air-conditioning issues, so we truly experienced that 111 degrees. WOW!

After Abu Dhabi, we flew another 5 hours to Cairo. That's where things started to get interesting! In Cairo, we got off the plane and immediately on to a bus that took us to the terminal. We had barely gotten in to the terminal when we spotted a very tall lady holding a sign with our name on it. I was confused because I was told Muhammed would be meeting us at the airport. Anyhow, we walked up to the woman and she said "Give me your passports and $50 US money" - just like that! No "hello" or pleasantries - there was no time to waste I guess! Anyhow, we did as she said and she directed us to go wait in the line for immigration while she took off with our money and passports! We would be lying if we said we weren't a little freaked out by this, but soon enough she returned with our stamps, said something to the immigration officer - and our passport was stamped and we were pushed through. Now we waited for our luggage. She directed us to get the free carts, told us where to wait, and she talked to the guys who were taking luggage off the trolleys to try to get ours off as quickly as possible. As soon as all 7 of our bags were on our carts, we had to go through customs. There was quite a long line and this was going to take awhile. Tall lady to the rescue again! She told us not to wait in the line but to go to a different place. She talked a customs officer into coming to where we were. He asked us what was in our bags, laughed, and said "Welcome to Egypt" and we were done! Now tall lady introduced us to short lady who said she would walk us outdoors to meet Muhammed. Tall lady quickly departed, short lady walked us out among a crowd of people who all seemed to be talking about "Americans" (as that was the only word I understood)- so I assume they were talking about the Americans who skipped through customs by making their own line!

Muhammed walked us a short way through the parking lot where he introduced us to a man who would be our driver. Muhammed took out his wallet, counted out 50 US dollars for me, and turned around to head back to the airport and told us to follow the driver. At the van, about 6 men and women (all who appeared to be over 50 years old) grabbed our luggage and loaded it into the van. Then, they stood there looking at us. One woman said "money" so I asked the driver if we should tip them because we did not have any Egyptian money yet. The driver did not seem to speak English, nor did we speak any egyptian arabic. Finally during this uncomfortable moment, Muhammed appeared and I was able to ask him if I should tip and how much. He waved me off and said "No" and directed us into the van. Later I did see him call over one of the luggage people and hand her some money. It was sometime in the parking lot or at the van that Gary's MSU water bottle disappeared off his backpack.

Now we departed for the 3 1/2- 4 hour ride to Alexandria. It was hazy, but very warm (about 95 degrees) Because it was a weekend, traffic was relatively light we were told. I had read blogs by other teachers here at Schutz, and anticipated the traffic - so this did not come as such a big surprise. We only saw a glimpse of the pyramids as we departed Cairo. We were certainly anxious to get to our apartment because by this time we had only had about 4 hours of sleep in the previous 48 hours and were functioning on adrenaline.

We thought we would avoid fast food once in Egypt, but this was the first place they took us after we arrived. This is me after a couple VERY long days of traveling!

Inside the Cairo McDonald's things looked quite familiar!

I had to try a more Egyptian option at McD's. Gary had a Big Mac. He said it tasted almost the same.

It was dark by the time we arrived at Schutz School. We were driven through the gate, where a team of people were ready to welcome us, including the head of school, Tom Baker. Tom showed us where we would come for breakfast the next morning, then lead us out the gate and across the street to our apartment building. A whole army carried our very heavy bags. The apartment building has marble entrance and a tiny little elevator, which Tom, Gary, and I squeezed into (along with one more person). By the time we entered our apartment, the army of workers had managed to haul all of our luggage up the stairs!

The school was completely ready for us. All of the lights were on in the apartment, the airconditioning was going, there were fresh flowers on the table, the refrigerator was stocked with yogurt, cheeses, fruits, bread, peanut butter, jelly, milk, and juice. They had completely furnished our apartment with brand new furniture, area rugs, and appliances! The beds were made and all that was left was for us to say good-night. Before Tom left, he gave us 2000 in Egyptian pounds (approximately $200 US dollars) and directions on how to get on the wifi. What a great first impression!!